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October 15, 2018, 4:55 AM
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| Megan Molteni / Wired: |
Researchers: 60% of Americans of European descent can be identified via public DNA databases, regardless of whether they've submitted their own DNA data or not — IN 2013, A young computational biologist named Yaniv Erlich shocked the research world by showing it was possible to unmask …
More:
Science, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, NPR, Gizmodo, The Verge, Vox, BGR, Silicon Republic, and BuzzFeed News
Tweets: @ensembl, @alfonslopeztena, @seldo, @sciencemagazine, @carnage4life, and @latimes
| Alison Griswold / Quartz: |
How Uber's team of economists tests new features and incentives, writes highly-cited academic papers, and provides talking points for public policy initiatives — It's hard to explain just how much economists love Uber. — Economists love Uber like a mother loves her child.
Tweets: @jedkolko, @noahpinion, @frankpasquale, @greglinden, @timoreilly, @alexgoldmark, and @veenadubal
| Erica Klarreich / Quanta Magazine: |
Urmila Mahadev, a UC Berkeley grad student, solves the fundamental problem of finding a protocol by which a classical computer can verify a quantum computation — Urmila Mahadev spent eight years in graduate school solving one of the most basic questions in quantum computation …
Tweets: @indianinterest, @lbnlphysics, @quantamagazine, @quantamagazine, @chelskilittle, and @phabcd
| Alex Blumberg / New York Magazine: |
Interview with former Groupon CEO and founder Andrew Mason on how he built and scaled the company, passed on Yahoo and Google acquisition offers, and got fired — Andrew Mason started Groupon ten years ago. He was a graduate student in his mid-20s, making money on the side by building websites.
Tweets: @monstro, @andrewchen, @johnpletz, @joshuanguyen, and @intelligencer
| Chainalysis: |
Study analyzing 32 biggest bitcoin holders, known as “whales”, suggests they may be stabilizing the market rather than destabilizing it and driving volatility — New data shows that bitcoin's largest holders are a diverse group that may be stabilizing, rather than destabilizing, the market.
Tweets: @philip_gradwell and @sharkcianews
| Ian Hathaway: |
Since 2015, first VC financings declined 25% to 40% annually for startups operating in sectors exposed to the core activities of Google, Facebook, and Amazon — UPDATE: A quick note of clarity, since many readers are misinterpreting (ie, not fully reading) the analysis done here.
Tweets: @matthewstoller, @john_dearie, @drahardja, @rossbaird, and @halsinger
| Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch: |
SmileDirectClub, which ships teeth-aligners directly to users, with dental professionals monitoring patient progress remotely, raises $380M at a $3.2B valuation — SmileDirectClub, the at-home teeth-straightening startup, has just raised $380 million at a $3.2 billion valuation, the company announced today.
More:
CNBC, GlobeNewswire News Room, and Bloomberg
| Aditya Kalra / Reuters: |
As India takes a firm stance on data localization and works on a data protection framework, two US senators write to encourage “light touch” regulation — NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators have called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to soften India's stance on data localization …
More:
Engadget and PYMNTS.com
| The Economic Times: |
Sources: Google is in talks with Flipkart, Paytm, others as it aims to debut a shopping tab in India that directs users to ecommerce sites from product searches — BENGALURU: Search engine giant Google will soon launch its ‘Shopping’ tab in India, allowing users to search for products to buy … | Mack DeGeurin / New York Magazine: |
How facial recognition is being used to monitor animals: detecting sickness in salmon, gauging diet of cattle, protecting elephants from poachers, and more — Facial recognition technology has some serious, persistent issues. These were clearly shown earlier this year when Amazon's …
Tweets: @nymag
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
MongoDB agrees to acquire cloud database provider MLab for $68M to strengthen its Atlas database-as-a-service offering — MongoDB, the New York-based company behind the popular eponymous open source NoSQL database, has acquired San Francisco cloud database provider MLab (styled “mLab").| Michael Joseph Gross / The Atlantic: |
Inside DARPA's neurotechnology research program for healing and enhancement of the human body and mind through neural implants and brain-machine interfaces — I. Who Could Object? — “Tonight I would like to share with you an idea that I am extremely passionate about,” the young man said.
Tweets: @theatlantic, @kelly2277, @cstross, @rosannecash, @scalzi, @jbickertonuk, @margiemeacham, @aparanjape, @warinthefuture, @peterwsinger, @evacide, and @adriennelaf
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